Daryl wrote:I lived through those days, and still wonder just how the world dodged that bullet. My only explanation is that those who could have unleashed WW3 on either side, looked at how it would affect them and their families, and backed off.
You may wish to check out "The Man Who Saved The World".
If not for the decision of Lt. Col
Stanislav Petrov, who was going against procedure, Russia would have launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike on 26th September, 1983 in response to a technical error that indicated America had launched between two to five nuclear missiles.
Stanislav deduced that it had to be an error since if America was launching an attack, it would have gone for an Alpha Strike of dozens (if not hundreds) of missiles. For his actions, he was neither punished nor rewarded since he had made the right call, but in doing so, he had set up his superiors for potential public embarrassment regarding the bug-ridden nature of the satellite warning system.
The close call did cause Russia to adjust its stance somewhat (knowing that you could have been wiped out because of a technical error is somewhat concerning), but Russia didn't really back down until the march of technology left them economically unable to remain within apparent shouting distance of the West.
These days, fairly accurate readings of the Russian Economy (as in, not filtered through the Kremlin) indicates that despite its sheer size, Russia has a smaller economy than the UK.